UPDATED: GHS set to join new athletic conference

The rumored move of Greencastle to a new, as-yet-unnamed athletic conference became official Monday evening.

The Greencastle school board voted unanimously in favor of accepting an invitation to the new conference, where county rival North Putnam has already cast its lot.

With the announcement, Greencastle will exit the Western Indiana Conference.

Plans for the new conference were announced this spring, with North Putnam joining five schools set to exit the Sagamore Conference — Southmont, Crawfordsville, North Montgomery, Western Boone and Frankfort.

“From what I understand, this is schools that are slightly more like us as far as student numbers, and they have all the same sports that we have,” school board member Brian Cox said.

“Yeah, we’re probably more closely aligned with size,” Superintendent Jeff Gibboney replied. “There’s not like a Northview and then a really small school.

“We’re all about the same size, and, yes, they all have about the same teams as we have.”

“And a little more geographically close,” school board president Mike White added.

“Yes, we don’t have to go far to the southeast, and we don’t have to go west,” Gibboney pointed out.

“It sounds like a good idea to me,” White concluded.

Remaining Sagamore Conference members Lebanon, Tri-West and Danville will retain the Sagamore name.

Meanwhile, Cascade voted to join the new conference earlier this month, leading to much speculation about Greencastle’s fate. The Cadets had been set to re-join the WIC prior to that announcement.

The new conference is set to begin play in 2025-26.

Fellow Putnam County schools Cloverdale and South Putnam remain WIC members.

When the initial plans were being formed, Greencastle athletic director Doug Greenlee said the schools put feelers out but added the timing wasn’t the best as it coincided with the Tiger Cub girls’ basketball team’s postseason run, pushing any discussions back until after the conference had officially formed.

“Discussions started getting serious in the spring, maybe even the late winter,” Greenlee said. “(Crawfordsville athletic director) Bryce Barton had said discussions were happening during the tournament run we were having in girls’ basketball but added he didn’t want to talk with us during that stretch as we were playing in the regional and semistate, not wanting that to be a distraction.

“Eventually, they reached out to us and (Cascade athletic director) Scott Stevens after North Putnam had committed for informal talks and discussing what interest we had. Northing was decided then but it was something that we would revisit in the fall.”

After a quiet summer, Greenlee said discussions resumed as the school year began but took off quickly once Cascade put its own plans into action.

“Right around the time school started, (Greencastle principal) Chad Rodgers and I went to a meeting with the six schools to discuss things again and do some fact finding,” Greenlee said. “At that time, the members invited us and Cascade, adding they would continue their search elsewhere if we were not interested.

“We left that meeting not knowing what we would do but things escalated quickly from there. We found out that Cascade jumped in; that meant, aside from Western Boone and Frankfort, the conference was already a group of schools that was close by and that we already played in several sports, which perked our interest.

“From there, it became a matter of decisions at the top. We spoke with administrators, amongst ourselves and polled our coaches and the community,” Greenlee added. “The result of the surveys overwhelmingly showed it was a good move for Greencastle.”

Greenlee said the school’s time in the WIC was a positive experience all around but pointed to a few possibilities that made the move worthwhile.

“Being a part of the WIC has been good for us in my seven years here and working with the administrators and athletic directors in the conference has been great, so it was nothing against the conference,” Greenlee said. “The new conference presented us with some things that couldn’t be done in the WIC and is a better fit for the community.

“One thing that came in to play for the non-Friday teams is travel time. On weeknights, which also includes our lower level teams, travel times in the WIC were long as the conference is big and spread out, leading to some very late nights for our athletes and coaches.

“The coaches didn’t list anything or name specifics but a lot of them liked the thought of competition being even in most sports,” Greenlee added.

Greenlee added that, while the county had been split between two conferences, the amount of times the county schools would still face each other likely wouldn’t change outside of conference-level meets, adding changes to the IHSAA classifications, which are set to begin next year, would keep the schools grouped up more often in postseason play.

“Keeping the county together has not been a concern but had always been done around here,” Greenlee said. “We’re going to continue playing the rest of the county schools, most likely at the sectional level, and play each other a lot in-season and during the county tournaments, sometimes even in holiday tournaments during the year.

“The IHSAA has also adjusted the number of schools that will be in the classes starting next year, meaning it is now not a matter of X amount of schools being in a class; there will be uneven numbers between the four-class sports, so we’re likely going to be grouped into Class 2A for a long time and likely will be with the rest of the county schools.”

In the days after the announcement, Greenlee said the reaction was lowkey, though that would likely change once the move becomes a reality in two years’ time.

“For now, it’s in the future and the teams are concentrating on what they’re doing now,” Greenlee said about the initial reaction to the announcement. “It’s a bit early to talk about the new conference. Once we get there in the 2025-26 school year, the excitement will be there because you’re competing in it.

“This is going to change our schedules tremendously as we go from 11 conference schools to eight teams, which means there are less predetermined games to play in everything but football. Even though this is two years away, it is critical for both conference to start planning as it takes a couple of years to get the schedules ready for a change.

“The bylaws in most conferences need a two-year head’s up that you’re planning to leave and we’ve followed everything we needed to do this,” Greenlee added. “The biggest part of all of this is the next 12-18 months because it’s going to take a lot of work to get things in order.”